Publications

Non-competition agreements (also referred to as “covenants not to compete” or “non-competes”) are restrictive covenants used to limit the employment and business activities of former employees. They are used to prevent former employees from directly competing with employers after the employment relationship ends. Any agreement limiting the rights of any person to do business in North Carolina must be in …

Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the first federal appellate court in the country to hold that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). Title VII is the federal statute which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, …

Learn how the Charlotte Housing Authority succeeded in obtaining low-income housing tax credit award Congratulations to the Charlotte Housing Authority on its recent closing on the tax-credit equity financing and RAD conversion of its $14.2 million Tall Oaks redevelopment project. Part of the development costs is financed by a low-income housing tax credit award of over $8.2 million. Despite strong …

In late August 2016, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues, a sub-regulatory document that addresses the Commission’s interpretation of the law related to retaliation in the workplace. The enforcement guidance replaces previous guidance issued by the EEOC in 1998. As defined by the Commission in the enforcement guidance, retaliation occurs when …

A public housing agency (“PHA”) is obligated to protect residents from the dangers of illegal drugs. Federal law requires PHAs to include lease provisions that grant them power to evict tenants who sell or use such drugs on or off premises. This power is expansive: the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that PHAs may even evict tenants who did not know …

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has implemented new nationwide procedures regarding the disclosure of position statements which may impact how some public and private employers respond to EEOC charges. In the past, an employer’s position statement and supporting documents submitted to defend an EEOC Charge would only be disclosed to the Charging Party after the EEOC’s investigation of …

The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) is preparing to publish a final rule updating the criteria used to determine which workers are eligible for minimum wage and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Under the proposed final rule, nearly 5 million additional workers will be eligible for overtime pay protection because of a 113 percent increase …

In 2015, the Greensboro Housing Authority (“GHA”) took a significant step in repositioning its assets by converting 893 units in eight public housing developments to project-based Section 8 units under the HUD RAD program. Some of the transactions involved FHA mortgage loans, Fannie Mae mortgage loans, tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits, and some had no outside financing at …

Filing deadlines are fast approaching in North Carolina Sherrod Banks gave a free seminar on property tax exemptions for affordable housing in North Carolina and South Carolina at the Carolinas Council Conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, just in time for developers, owners and housing authorities to prepare applications for property tax exemptions for 2016. Applications for tax exemptions are …

For this issue’s Legal Briefs, we put the following question to number of Triangle attorneys: For your clients, how vital is it to keep the same attorney(s) on their account for an extended period of time? How does your firm maintain this consistency? Today, clients can get legal information from the Internet; they come to us because they want counsel …

The Triangle Golf Challenge

In 2003, The Banks Foundation began holding annual golf tournaments to raise money for families who are moving from welfare to work and from public housing to private homeownership. The board approved an expansion of the Tournament to support other Triangle charities in 2013 and renamed the tournament as the Triangle Golf Challenge.